


she outshines the blue sky

by ninemoons42



Series: Dragon Age Inquisition - Kiriya - Original Flavor [3]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Banter, Cullen watches the Inquisitor fight, Cullen your crush is showing, F/M, Pre-Relationship, Sparring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-08
Updated: 2015-09-08
Packaged: 2018-04-19 18:24:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4756496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ninemoons42/pseuds/ninemoons42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Inquisitor spars with Cassandra, and Cullen can't look away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	she outshines the blue sky

Crisp cool breeze and the prospect of a beautiful day: if not for the pang of fear that slashed at him with the memory of the Breach -- that sickly wound in the sky that could reoccur -- he would have looked up at the fluff of faraway drifting clouds and smiled.

He had to content himself with a deep, steadying breath. In, and hold for a count of five, and out, and hold for a count of six. Lyrium-shaded nightmares receding, slowly. 

Cullen strode out onto the battlements to hoarse airborne cries, and above him a dark-winged shape whirled and oriented itself and streaked out of sight. Messages to the rest of the Inquisition. He had letters to write: his forces needed more weapons, more armor, and the smiths and crafters and Dagna were already starting to run low on certain supplies. He’d led many a force but nothing this big, nothing this disparate, and he had to remember to speak with the mages -- if they’d deign to see him -- to inquire after what they might need.

Approaching footsteps, a rapid patter, and he turned just in time to receive a sheaf of notes. The young messenger drew up to him with a crisp salute, which he returned. “Word from Scout Harding,” the messenger explained.

“Thank you,” Cullen said, already scanning the familiarly cramped handwriting. “Go and refresh yourself and then report back to your officers.”

“Yes, Ser.” A nod, and when he looked back up, only the flip of the messenger’s long braid told him where she had gone.

Promising sources of certain minerals, outposts cleared -- he nodded, and thought about responses and appropriate long-term strategies, and then -- 

A shout from one of the courtyards -- it was more of an excited whoop -- and he hadn’t heard one of those for a long time. The accompanying clamor, too, was new and strange, and he knew he had to attend to his overflowing desk but he cursed himself for a curious fool and looked toward the source of the commotion.

A flash of light on one of the other balconies -- a distinctive headdress -- and perhaps it made him feel better, a little, to see Vivienne drifting into view.

The courtyard he was looking at had cleared with the appearance of Varric -- who was strutting and laughing and waving his arms for quiet.

Quiet enough that it was easy to hear him when he said, “All right, you two, come on out.”

“The audience was _not_ my idea,” retorted a familiar voice: Cassandra.

Cullen blinked as she stepped into the yard. Heavy leather armor and no sword or shield? What was she doing with one of the longer training staves? As he watched, she rolled her shoulders and twirled the staff several times, as if to warm up -- and soon she was standing straight and stern. He could just make out her cocked eyebrow.

“I didn’t think we’d be training in _public_ ,” someone else said: and Cullen _stared_ because Kiriya Trevelyan was sauntering out into the courtyard without any armor on. 

As he watched, the Inquisitor unbuttoned her tunic and tossed it to Sera, who snickered and threw her a rude gesture.

So now Kiriya was standing in the sunlight in a light cotton shift over her trousers and boots, and he could see faintly lighter lines along her bared shoulders and arms -- the scars and ghosts of old fights and old battles. Dark loose hair falling haphazardly to her shoulders, the ends faintly riffling in the lingering breeze.

She was making faces at a smug-looking Dorian even as she spun and twirled the short wooden batons in her hands, and then she said, “Are we doing this or not?”

“We are, we are,” Varric said. Cullen watched him take his place an equal distance between the Seeker and the Inquisitor, and threw out his hands in an extravagant gesture. “You know the rules: you hit your opponent, you lose.”

“This is ridiculous,” Cassandra said, and shifted her staff into a middle guard position anyway.

“It was this or the Iron Bull throws us at targets,” Kiriya laughed, and Cullen watched as she dropped into a very low lunge. 

“Andraste forfend,” Cassandra said -- and tapped the ground with the forward tip of her staff.

Cullen held his breath. A faint crumpling sound.

And Kiriya suddenly leapt forward, still staying low to the ground, one baton slashing, as though to cut Cassandra’s feet out from beneath her.

Cassandra fended her off with a few sweeps of her staff, and danced away, still using her staff like a spear. “We haven’t got all day,” she taunted.

Kiriya bared her teeth, then rolled forward and exploded up onto her feet, whirling towards Cassandra, her batons blurring as she attempted to strike -- and Cassandra seemed to dance around the full length of her staff as she parried, but didn’t move away. 

Now it was a close contest, the brisk _clack clack clack_ of rapidfire blows. A grunt as Kiriya dropped her shoulder and threw herself toward Cassandra’s midsection -- only to leap backward to avoid the staff striking her right in the throat.

Cullen watched as Kiriya broke away, dancing lightly. She never seemed to stop moving: feinting, lunging, her batons spinning.

Cassandra growled and threw herself into a charge, and Kiriya evaded: Cullen watched her leap up into the air and then land on the tip of Cassandra’s weapon, bearing it down into the ground before flipping away.

“Do the thing!” Sera yowled from the sidelines.

Kiriya grinned -- such bright startling recklessness that Cullen caught his breath again -- and then she turned her grip on her batons so that she held him backhanded, and darted in on Cassandra’s right flank. 

Cassandra laughed and parried, easily, and then pressed the advantage by thrusting forward, forcing Kiriya to roll away to avoid getting hit.

“You’re having far too much fun,” Dorian called, grinning.

“I like the rules,” Kiriya replied around a gasp of breath -- before evading Cassandra’s next strike and uncurling to her feet.

And then she tapped her baton against the nearest part of Cassandra she could reach: her shoulder.

Too busy sighing with relief, Cullen almost didn’t catch Varric’s complaint: “Did you _throw_ the match? That wasn’t in the rules!”

“There was only one rule,” Kiriya said, laughing as she snatched Cassandra’s staff to lean on. “You didn’t specify anything else besides _don’t get hit_.”

“Better rules next time,” Cassandra advised as she began to take her leather armor off. And then: “Your hair’s a mess.”

“Nothing to do but wait for it to grow out,” Kiriya complained.

Cullen couldn’t help but feel he was intruding on the moment, but he couldn’t look away: sunlight and dust streaking the Inquisitor’s skin, and the easy movement of her shoulders as she dug a piece of ribbon from her pocket and tried to put her unruly hair into some semblance of order. “How many people were _watching_?” She sounded scandalized.

“I do not want to know,” was Cassandra’s reply.

He wanted to be the staff that Kiriya leaned on as she began to walk away. He wanted to touch her hair and trace her scars. He wanted to be the one she whispered her secrets to -- 

Cullen shook his head, and looked down at the notes that he’d crumpled in his fist, and stepped back towards his office -- but he couldn’t stop himself from looking back.

Only to find Kiriya looking at him, staring at him over her shoulder, even as she and Cassandra disappeared through a door.

**Author's Note:**

> I am also on [tumblr](http://ninemoons42.tumblr.com/) and my Dragon Age: Inquisition blog is [here](http://ninemoons42-inquisition.tumblr.com/).


End file.
